MUS 1020: Elements of Music
Goals: To increase students’ understanding of musical language and construction and provide performance experience. To learn to read and perform elements of rhythm, pitch, and expression, students will sing, play the piano and percussion instruments, move, compose, and improvise.
Content: Beats and subdivisions, rhythm patterns, simple and compound meters, pitch in treble and bass clefs, intervals, scales and key signatures, primary chords.
Taught: Annually.
MUS 1030: Music in World Cultures
Goals: To introduce students to the music of diverse cultures.
Content: Classical music styles from India, China, Africa, and other cultures will be contrasted with music from Europe, the Americas, and other parts of the world. All will be related to current classical and popular traditions.
Taught: Annually.
MUS 1070: Beginning Class Voice
(2 credits)
Goal: Learn basic vocal production and singing techniques.
Content: Breathing, sound production, diction, vowel placement, ensemble basics.
MUS 1080: Music History Abroad
Goals: To study the composers, compositions, and styles on-site through traveling in Italy, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, and other countries.
Content: Italian music from Palestrina to Verdi; music of Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak, Liszt, and others.
MUS 1080 can count for breadth of study for music majors.
Taught: January term and extended May term.
MUS 1100: Introduction to Music
Goals: To establish a vocabulary for musical understanding and discussion; to establish a foundational knowledge of Western Classical music history; to become familiar with selected works from this repertoire; to introduce students to traditional musics of other selected cultures.
Content: Recordings, supplemented with readings.
Taught: Annually.
MUS 1130: University Women’s Chorale
(1 credit)
Content: A women’s chorus performing a wide variety of secular and sacred repertory from ancient to modern. One or two concerts are given each semester.
MUS 1210: Beginning Class Piano
(2 credits)
Goals: To develop basic keyboard skills and music fundamentals.
Content: Music notation, sight reading, intervals, rhythm and meter, scale and triad building, harmonization, elementary repertory, and improvisation.
Taught: Annually, fall term.
Prerequisite: MUS 1020 or equivalent training.
MUS 1220: Advanced Beginning Class Piano
(2 credits)
Goals: Continuation of MUS 1210. This course prepares students for intermediate class piano study and Music Theory.
Content: Scales and triads, chord progressions, sight-reading, transposition, elementary repertory, and improvisation.
Taught: Annually, spring term.
Prerequisite: MUS 1210 or equivalent training.
MUS 1230: Rhythmic Solfege
(2 credits)
Goals: Develop aural comprehension and the ability to sight-read rhythms and tonal music.
Content: Intervals, scales, diatonic melodies, functional harmony, beats and subdivisions, rhythm patterns, simple and compound meters.
Taught: Annually.
MUS 1250: Invitation to the Opera
Goals: To introduce students to the practice and history of opera.
Content: The chronology of opera in western music will be described. Examples of live and video-taped performance will be examined critically.
Taught: Spring, alternate years.
MUS 1410: Indonesian Music and Cultures
(Listed under Anthropology; ANTH 1410).
MUS 1750: Class Guitar
(2 credits)
Goals: To learn basic folk and classical guitar techniques.
Content: Basic technical skills and varied guitar literature.
Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.
MUS 3070: Advanced Class Voice
(2 credits)
Goals: Continuation of MUS 1070: Beginning Class Voice; work on more advanced vocal production and singing techniques.
Content: Breathing, sound production, diction, vowel placement, ensemble singing.
Prerequisite: MUS 1070 or equivalent training (permission of instructor)
MUS 3120: A Cappella Choir
(1 credit)
Content: Performance of sacred and secular repertory from the sixteenth century to the present. Several concerts are given each semester, with international tours every four years.
Prerequisite: Members chosen by audition.
MUS 3140: Hamline Winds
(1 credit)
Content: Musical experience for woodwind, brass, and percussion players through rehearsal and performance of original wind band literature as well as quality transcriptions. Repertoire covers three centuries. Ensemble experience includes small chamber ensembles (3 to 10 players) of like instrumentation, mixed instrumentation, and sectional choirs.
Prerequisites: None. Placement auditions at start of term.
MUS 3150: Jazz Ensemble
(1 credit)
Content: Students study, improvise, and perform music in the jazz and popular idiom, with both vocal and instrumental combos formed from the larger group. Performance opportunities include the annual Swing Dance, high school and college JazzFests, and local venues.
Prerequisites: None. Placement auditions at start of term.
MUS 3160: Hamline Orchestra
(1 credit)
Content: Students study and perform orchestral repertoire from the 18th century to the present. In string and wind sectionals, students explore orchestral excerpts, conducting, and repertoires for single families of instruments.
Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.
MUS 3170: Chamber Music
(1 credit)
Content: Various small ensembles of strings, woodwind, brass, percussion, and keyboard. Designed for advanced players, chamber music requires individual preparation for rehearsals, coaching sessions, and performances.
Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.
MUS 3190: Accompanying
(1 credit)
Content: Coaching in the piano accompaniment of vocal and instrumental performers for recitals and juries.
Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.
MUS 3210: Intermediate Class Piano
(2 credits)
Goals: Development of keyboard and musical skills. This course prepares students for the piano proficiency examination.
Content: Intermediate repertory, sight reading, triads and inversions, chord progressions, scales and arpeggios, transposition, harmonization, and improvisation.
Taught: Annually, fall term.
Prerequisite: MUS 1220 or equivalent training.
MUS 3220: Advanced Class Piano
(2 credits)
Goals: Development of repertoire, technique, and sight-playing. This course prepares students for private performance studies.
Content: Intermediate repertoire, scales and arpeggios in multiple octaves, triads and inversions, chord progressions, and harmonization from lead sheets, and improvisation.
Prerequisite: MUS 3210 or equivalent training.
Taught: Annually, spring term.
MUS 3300: Topics in Instrumental Literature
Goals: To provide students with a comprehensive knowledge of the historical development, major forms, major composers, stylistic changes and technical developments of particular areas of music. (Chamber music, symphonies, piano music, etc.)
Content: Representative compositions from Renaissance era through the present. The general styles, individual composers and compositions are studied in detail through readings, score identification, and listening identification.
Taught: Alternate years (topics rotate–see current semester schedule).
MUS 3310: Topics in Medieval and Renaissance Music
Goals: Designed for nonmajors and majors, the course will explore diverse issues in early music. The dominance of the Church, the rise of the “secular,” the impact of the doctrines of “courtly love,” and the contexts of the other arts and politics; these and others will be studied in their relationship to specific musical works of the period.
Content: Representative compositions from Gregorian chant to Palestrina.
Taught: Alternate years.
MUS 3320: Topics in Baroque Music
Goals: Designed for non-majors and majors, the course will explore issues in 17th and 18th century music. The domination of language and its impact on opera, the age of Kepler, Newton, and Galileo running parallel to the new flowering of instrumental music; these and others will be studied in their relationship to specific musical works of the period.
Content: Representative compositions from Monteverdi to Bach and Handel.
Taught: Alternate years.
MUS 3330: Topics in Classical and Romantic Music
Goals: Designed for non-majors and majors, the course will explore issues in 18th and 19th century music. The impact of the enlightenment and the American and French Revolutions, the differentiation of concepts of Classicism and Romanticism, the import of late 19th century thought (Darwin, Marx, Freud); these and others will be studied in their relationship to specific musical works of the period.
Content: Music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Billings, Brahms, Wagner, and others.
Taught: Alternate years.
MUS 3340: Topics in Twentieth-Century Music
Goals: Designed for nonmajors and majors, the course will explore issues in the music of the 20th century. The impact of wars, of political systems, of technology, of gender and race, the import of expressionism, of impressionism, of technical systems, and of the conflict between classical and popular cultures; these and others will be studied in their relationship to specific musical works of the period.
Content: American music, serialism, electronic music, new structural principles.
Taught: Alternate years.
MUS 3350: Music History I
Goals: Provide students with a rigorous knowledge of the chronology of music history. Ability to read music required.
Content: A detailed survey from the time of the Greeks to the early 18th century.
Taught: Alternate years, fall term.
MUS 3360: Music History II
Goals: Provide students with a rigorous knowledge of the chronology of music history. Ability to read music required.
Content: A detailed survey from the early 18th century to the present.
Taught: Alternate years, spring term.
MUS 3400: Dalcroze Eurhythmics
(2 credits)
Goals: Develop active listening skills, coordination of body and mind, internalization of rhythm, melody, harmony, and improvisation skills.
Content: Eurhythmics exercises in beat, twice as fast/slow, rhythmic patterns, simple and compound meter, complementary rhythm, phrase, measure shape (anacrusis-crusis-metacrusis)
Prerequisite: MUS 1020: Elements of Music or equivalent training.
Taught: Annually, fall term.
MUS 3410: Theory of Music I
Goals: Develop a basic knowledge of tonal harmony.
Content: Musical analysis, basic harmonic progression, principles of voice leading, elements of composition, sight-singing, and aural training including computer-based instruction.
Prerequisites: MUS 1210 and 1230. MUS 1230 may be taken concurrently.
Taught: Annually, fall term.
MUS 3420: Theory of Music II
Goals: Intermediate development of written and aural skills.
Content: Harmonic progression, seventh chords, modulation, composition in small forms, and aural training including harmonic dictation. Elements of style analysis.
Prerequisite: MUS 3410, 1220.
Taught: Annually, spring term.
MUS 3430: Theory of Music III
Goals: To develop advanced skills in theory for music majors.
Content: Chromatic harmony, analysis of musical forms, style analysis, and aural analysis and composition.
Prerequisite: MUS 3420.
Taught: Alternate years, fall term.
MUS 3450: Arranging, Orchestration, and Computer Notation
Goals: Develop skills in arranging and orchestrating music through the use of the latest computer notation software.
Content: Techniques of arranging music for various combinations of instruments and voices using computer notation.
Prerequisite: MUS 3420.
MUS 3460: Instrumental Score Analysis and Conducting
Goals: To acquire a knowledge of the conductor’s multifaceted role in instrumental ensemble music making and to gain practical experience with rehearsal techniques and score interpretation.
Content: Refine the gestures of conducting; become familiar with many orchestra and band instruments; develop rehearsal skills; develop score reading, transposition, and score preparation and knowledge of the literature.
Prerequisite: MUS 3410.
Taught: Alternate years, spring term.
Advanced Level Performance Studies
Goals: Develop solo performance ability.
Prerequisites: Intermediate performing and sight-reading ability and participation in an ensemble (ensemble experience not required for Piano, Organ, Harpsichord, Guitar, Harp, Percussion, or Composition). Audition required.
Credit: Two credits for nonmajors (12 one-half hour lessons or 12 hour lessons).
Note: Student may not register for private lessons at other ACTC colleges.
MUS 3500: Voice
MUS 3510: Piano
MUS 3520: Organ
MUS 3530: Harpsichord
MUS 3540: Guitar
MUS 3550: Flute
MUS 3560: Oboe
MUS 3570: Clarinet
MUS 3580: Saxophone
MUS 3590: Bassoon
MUS 3600: Violin
MUS 3610: Viola
MUS 3620: Cello
MUS 3630: Double Bass and/or Jazz Bass
MUS 3640: Trumpet
MUS 3650: French Horn
MUS 3660: Trombone
MUS 3670: Tuba
MUS 3680: Baritone Horn
MUS 3690: Harp
MUS 3700: Percussion
MUS 3710: Composition
MUS 3740: Saxophone and Doubling
MUS 5120: Renaissance
(1 credit)
Content: Advanced a cappella choral repertory from Renaissance, Baroque, and Contemporary literature, designed for vocal majors to rehearse and perform at an intense level with emphasis on individual preparation.
Prerequisites: Annual audition and consent of instructor.
MUS 5180: Oratorio Society
(1 credit)
Goals: To develop advanced vocal ensemble ability and performance techniques.
Prerequisites: Intermediate performing and sight reading ability and participation in an ensemble. Members chosen by audition.
MUS 5930: Senior Musical Arts Project
Goals: Develop a paper, recordings, or another project appropriate to the discipline of music.
Content: Student works closely with instructor to develop, research, or otherwise prepare this capstone project.
Prerequisites: Senior music major with musical arts concentration.
Taught: Every semester.
MUS 5940: Senior Recital
Goals: To prepare and perform a recital representative of a student’s best work.
Content: Together, teacher and student select appropriate repertoire to be performed.
Prerequisite: Senior music major or consent of instructor.
Taught: Every semester.
